You Don't Ask, You Just Give
In many parts of the world, people are searching for alternatives to the cash economy. In Mali, one of the most cash poor nations in the world, "Dama" or the "Gift Economy" has been thriving for thousands of years. This system of exchange is not based on exchange or equivalence between the giver and the receiver, rather the receiver passes the gift on to someone else. The gift economy celebrates t... posted on Jul 24 2009, 4,064 reads

The Difference Makers
Are you a Difference Maker? What is it that you possess -- beyond the material -- that you can give to the world? Time? Energy? Art? Love? Inspiration? Happiness? Jason Miller and Mathew Boggs have launched a global campaign called The Difference Makers, with a mission to unify, edify, and magnify world-shapers' talents for the highest global good.... posted on Jul 16 2009, 3,821 reads

A Beloved Ritual By Ironworkers in Boston
Every day, children who come to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute write their names on paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint those names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new building they're constructing. The building's steel skeleton is now a brightly colored, seven-story monument to scores o... posted on Jul 13 2009, 4,108 reads

100 People, 100 Dollars, 100 Days
At Project 100, we believe that the act of giving changes everything. That's why we're giving 100 people, 100 dollars over 100 days. There are no requirements and no strings attached. All we ask is that each recipient gives back in any way they can, to make the community a better place. ... posted on Jul 11 2009, 3,786 reads

Trickle-down Eggersnomics
Halfway through our interview, Dave Eggers jumps up from the sofa, flips open his laptop, which is buried under a pile of magazines and newspapers, and retrieves an email from Valentino Achak Deng, the Sudanese refugee whose harrowing experiences during his country's civil war and bizarre entry into the U.S. were chronicled by Eggers in What Is the What. The proceeds from that book, a finalist for... posted on Jul 05 2009, 2,240 reads

30 Students Defying Expectation
Every April, some 230,000 Indians take the intensely competitive entrance exam to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) -- the seven prestigious schools that train India's top-notch engineers and entrepreneurs. Only 5,000 students get in. Most come from the middle-class and prepare for the test through private coaching. But in the past few years, a small group of desperately poor, talented st... posted on Jun 24 2009, 2,821 reads

An 11-Year-Old's Gift of Service
Water now flows to Nyamagongo school in Tanzania. It flows because, in the SF Bay Area, an 11-year-old boy told an 11-year-old girl about a small village full of orphans in Africa. And then the girl gave up birthday gifts and helped change the lives of Ogutu and Wilis and 400 children she has never met. The world would seem smaller and she would carry in her heart the rare gift of knowledge that o... posted on Jun 15 2009, 2,608 reads

An Orchestra Making A Difference
33 years ago, Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu gathered 11 students in a parking garage in Caracas, Venezuela and taught them to play music. Over the last three decades, Dr. Abreu's organization, "El Sistema" or "The System" has grown considerably and now teaches music to 300,000 of Venezuela's poorest children. This inspiring video shows the power of Dr. Abreu's vision and the incredible change that ensemb... posted on Jun 11 2009, 3,596 reads

Neighbor, Can You Spare A Plum?
A year and a half ago Asiya Wadud began organizing a little neighborhood fruit exchange called Forage Oakland. It works simply. A woman with a yard full of lemon trees, say, can share her bounty in exchange for a paper bag full of someone else's persimmons when they come into season. So far, 200 people have signed up. All over the country, the underground fruit economy is growing. At new Web sites... posted on Jun 10 2009, 2,111 reads

The Road Builds Us
In 1958 a group of students went to a small, rural village in Sri Lanka and built schools, houses, and toilets alongside the villagers. They shared meals, song, and dance and called their program shramadana (gift of labor). This act of kindness led to what is now known as the Sarvodaya movement. Last month, in the same spirit of shramadana, a group of students in Nepal went to a small village to h... posted on May 28 2009, 2,375 reads